


Then it Passed

by pixiePique



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, First Kiss, First Love, Fluff, Forgiveness, Found Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hanahaki Disease, Kissing, Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Platonic Relationships, Slow Burn, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 12:45:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiePique/pseuds/pixiePique
Summary: “When you love somebody and bite your tongue, all you get is a mouthful of blood.” - the Fruit BatsTaako loves a lot of people throughout his long, long life- and unfortunately, he finds out what happens when they forget about you.Canon-compliant Hanahaki AU where Hanahaki happens with platonic as well as romantic love.





	1. Chapter 1

It had taken so long for everyone else to figure it out.

Then again, nobody else on the ship was as protective of Lup as he was. When you spend your whole life watching each other’s backs, you end up having to- well, watch each other. So when Barold started looking longingly at Lup, Taako noticed, and when he started having to excuse himself mid-conversation with her to cough in the privacy of his bedroom, Taako noticed-

And when, as he stared at Barold’s dead body stretched out across the bathroom floor late one cycle, there was a gardenia poking its head out of Barold’s throat- Taako noticed that too.


	2. Chapter 2

“I thought elves couldn’t get it!”

“They can’t!” Taako wheezed, only continuing after he’d coughed another scattering of violets into the toilet, where they floated, at once innocent and accusatory. “Barold must’ve passed his weirdness onto me.” He spat out another round of petals, quickly flushing the toilet before he was forced to look at them.

Lup looked like she was itching to pull out her notebook, and Taako nearly growled at her before she saw how his ears were plastered flat against his head in fury and decided against it. She could write down what a freak of nature he was later- right now he needed his sister. She and Barold had been together for a while now- he had not appreciated watching Barold cough himself to death for eleven cycles before she got her shit together, thank you very much- and if anyone on this boat was an expert on gut gardens and love, she was it.

“The old flower flu,” Lup eventually said, practically grinning. He was so fucked. “Well, first thing is to cure it,” she breezed on, matter-of-fact. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“I don’t know,” Taako said.

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious, Lup.” He let his head fall back down on the toilet seat. All this coughing was exhausting.

“It’s one of the crew, right?” Her eyes were suddenly filled with worry. “You’re not gonna die every year because whoever it was got snatched by the hunger.”

She relaxed when he started shaking his head, having to clear one last petal from his throat before he could speak. “Couldn’t be, I haven’t talked to the locals in like four cycles.”

“Well, there’s only four dudes here,” she reasoned. “It’s clearly not Davenport or Merle, because-”

“Ew-”

“Those are our dads,” they chimed together. Taako was almost disappointed that Magnus didn’t throw a pillow at them for using twinspeak, or “being creepy” as he usually put it, before remembering that Magnus wasn’t there.

The fingers she’d been counting crew members on stilled. “Is it Barry?” Before he could even take a breath to reply, she saw how his face scrunched up in disgust and waved the thought off. “Nah, I’d have noticed.”

“I would have been acting so weird,” Taako agreed.

“So weird.”

They sat in silence for a while, not having to say out loud the only remaining option.

“He’s adorable,” Lup finally conceded. "And maybe the only person left alive who deserves you. You gonna tell him?"

"I'm not in love with him."

She put a hand on his cheek, eyes glancing to the floor where some petals had escaped the toilet. “Bullshit,” she repeated, the words laced with something heavy this time. Then, before he could react, she shoved her fingers down his throat, giggling on her way out the door as he gagged and heaved up more violets. 

When he’d finished, he briefly considered chasing her, but decided against it in favor of trying to fit his entire head into the toilet.

Maybe he could drown the plant or himself so he wouldn’t have to deal with this.


	3. Chapter 3

“Dear, is that really fair?”

Istus tried not to giggle as she watched Taako chug an entire quart of water without taking a breath, attempting to over-water the plant and kill it that way. Instead, she kept a mostly-straight face as she turned to her beloved Raven Queen. “The strings do as they please. I can’t control them.”

“I have never heard such a bald-faced lie,” Raven said. “You’re going to kill him, you know.”

“I’ve never heard such a bald-faced lie,” Istus retorted. “When he does die, it will not be because of me.” Raven’s face remained stony. “I promise you, love, if I don’t do this he will never know how lovely it is to be alive in the first place.”

Raven huffed, but her feathers settled back down from their angry puff into their usual sleek pattern. Peering back at the screen, a tiny version of Taako sputtering out an excuse as Magnus walked in on him cleaning up violets, a small smile finally graced her face. “It is funny, though.”

Istus couldn’t agree more. It was funny.


	4. Chapter 4

Taako couldn’t remember what it was like to breathe normally.

He didn’t know exactly how long he’d had Hanahaki. Healers told him it couldn’t have been more than a few months, but his memory was a little fuzzy. It seemed longer than that. It seemed normal, like it had always been this way.

They didn’t know what to tell him about the other pain in his chest- the one that felt like someone had ripped out his heart and packed it up in their bag. He still had his heart. He’d checked.

Heartache, one said. Loneliness. Taako transmuted some lint he had in his pocket into gold coins for that one, unable to will himself to pay them actual money after that ridiculous diagnosis. He had never had anyone. How would he know any different?

Sometimes Taako thought maybe people were lying. Probably nobody ever felt quite right, and this was as good as it got.

Fuck it, then.

Taako put his name up on Craig the Gnome’s list and that was that.


	5. Chapter 5

When they finally met up, they went to a bar to receive their assignment. If the meeting was a little ominous, it was at least short, and the three of them stayed at the bar after- a request from the beefcake whose name was, somehow, Magnus Burnsides.

They “got to know each other” for the rest of the night, after Taako had rolled his eyes and chugged a pint of ale more quickly than he normally would. There was a very sexy barfight between Magnus and another muscled hottie, and then a hilarious barfight between Magnus and Merle.

Then, just as Taako was jumping off of the bar, having just brought down the house with a rendition of Hooked On a Feeling, Merle and Magnus earning a great deal of respect by performing the shit out of the ooga-chakas- his ankle twisted in his satin heels, a celebration of his last night wearing non-sensible shoes, and he started to tumble from the rickety wooden stool to the floor. 

Magnus caught him, hauling him back upright, and they ended up in a position Taako might have pushed himself away from immediately if he’d been a little less drunk. Magnus’ nose was no more than an inch from his own, and Taako could feel his breath on his lips. His eyes were warm and brown and filled with concern- for him, Taako realized, and his safety. That didn’t often happen. He realized with a start that it was the first time since he’d met him that he’d actually looked into the man’s eyes. He hadn’t even realized he’d been avoiding it. Now, his face turned pink in a rush of warmth as he just stared into them, feeling how hot and big Magnus’ hands were on his arms.

It felt good. Way too good.

“Excuse me,” he breathed, and ripped himself away, stumbling toward the bathroom.

He threw up all the alcohol he’d put away, coughing. He was about to throw away the usual handful of yellow flowers, when suddenly he froze, a jolt of fear ripping through his chest like a lightning strike. There, almost hidden among the leaves, was a tiny purple bud, barely bigger than a fish egg. As Taako slowly pressed it with the pad of his finger, its tiny petals burst open, unfurling into a violet. His face flushed as he remembered the leading causes all the healers had told him about, Magnus’ bright smile flashing across his memories, hazy as they were from ale.

“Shit.” Taako pursed his lips and blinked, trying to keep back the panicked tears. “Shit.”


	6. Chapter 6

He hadn’t yet had time to ponder the events of the day- jumping off a moving train will really consume your thoughts- but that night, Angus tucked up safe in the dorms, Taako stared, wide-eyed, at the ceiling.

“Damnit,” he whispered, rolling over until his left cheek smacked the pillow.

That kid was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it. Where did he get off, coming in here with no parents, all smart and capable and self-sufficient? It was just like Taako and- well, it was just like Taako when he was younger. He didn’t have any regrets- it wasn’t like staying anywhere very long was an option, and it had certainly given him a deep distrust for strangers that had saved his life more than once- but he couldn’t help but think that Angus deserved better.

The next day, against the business of his schedule and his own better judgement, the magic lessons started.

A few months later, he went snooping around Ango’s room. He had no excuse, except that while he felt his mind becoming clearer with every day he spent at the bureau- surely the mental exercise of messing with Leon and the Director- he was still no great detective, and therefore he needed to dig a little deeper to find out what was wrong with his little apprentice.

Ango had been avoiding him lately. His eyes narrowed with renewed worry as he carefully rifled through stacks of paper on the little guy’s desk. He’d looked guilty, canceling magic classes through messages passed to Taako by Magnus or Merle, and practically sprinting out of the cafeteria whenever Taako strolled in for some free buttered noodles. And whenever Taako paid a visit to his quarters, he was always with the director. Taako slammed another drawer shut, shaking with anger and concern. He didn’t know what Angus could possibly need, possibly want that only the director could provide, that Taako couldn’t-

He swept his arm under the bed, and suddenly there it was.

As he unrolled the paper bag, he couldn’t help but chuckle. World’s greatest detective or no, he was still eleven, and when you are eleven your secrets go underneath the bed. Taako could hardly believe he had checked anywhere else first. He supposed he’d forgotten, for a minute, that Angus was still a child- it was easy to do in moments less sweet than these.

Then the bag opened, and the smile dropped from his face.

Petals. Lily petals, leaves and even whole flowers- Taako tried to swallow around the lump that had risen in his throat. After a while, the flowers always got too big to flush. He didn’t know how much time the kid had left, and- oh god, lilies. White and full, exactly like the ones on his big, stupid hat. 

Fuck.

He ran to the director’s office, leaving the bag to drop to the floor, lilies spilling over the carpet. He coughed up a few petals when he finally arrived, his labored breathing always making it worse. There were none for Angus- he had learned that it only happened if love was unrequited. He knew Angus loved, him but he’d thought- he thought he’d made it clear-

Then he was pounding on the door, teeth gritted in attempt not to cry.

“Angus!” He shouted. “I know you’re in there.”

Silence.

“Lucretia, let him out!” He heard his voice break and he didn’t even care, he just kept slapping at the hard slats. “I need to talk to-”

The door opened with a rush, and his hand passed through the empty air before he reined it back in- he blinked in surprise. his palm had turned pink without him noticing. He tucked it behind his robes before Lucretia could see.

“I need to talk to him,” he panted, cutting her off before she could speak. “Please.”

Her eyes widened at the word, and her mouth closed, swallowing the words he was sure had been meant to send him away. She turned her body toward her desk, where Taako could now see the figure of Angus, slouched over and carefully avoiding looking at him. He breathed a sigh of relief. He was okay. There was still time to make things right.

“Angus?” Lucretia’s voice was gentle, her expression blocked from Taako’s view by her long, white hair. 

There was a silence, and then Angus turned quickly to Lucretia. Taako felt his throat close up, a similar tightening to the time he’d found, quite by accident, that he was allergic to pomegranates. Angus’ face was pale, his eyes swollen from crying and his lips chapped. Taako could see scratches at his throat, probably his own hands trying in vain to rid him of whatever was choking him as he coughed up flower after flower. He stared at Lucretia like she was the only thing tethering his thin frame to the earth. 

“Lucretia,” he pleaded. Taako didn’t know whether it was a question or a command- he’d never seen such a desperation in someone’s eyes, and he could barely stand seeing it in his- oh, fuck it. His kid. He was a big enough person to admit it. Just not out loud. Not in front of Lucretia.

“Lucretia?” She still hadn’t answered him, and now he scooted his chair out, having to hop down because his feet couldn’t quite reach the floor. He ran over to grab her hands, still not looking at Taako. “Lucretia!”

Finally she turned back to Taako, giving him the same desperate look that Angus had, and then Ango’s eyes flickered to him. Taako had been expecting to see a lot of things when he finally got to see him, but he hadn’t been expecting this- this rage burning in his dark eyes. It was familiar, although he never dreamed Angus’ sweet face was capable of the expression. It was betrayal. It was hatred of the world. It was fear.

He felt like he might throw up. That was how Taako had looked as a kid.

“Angus,” Lucretia said forcefully. He said nothing, but the anger still burned in his eyes. She gave Taako a look that was almost pitying. “Feel free to use my office,” she said as the door closed with her on the other side.

“I guess your little wine and cheese nights don’t usually get so serious,” Taako finally said, voice not managing to fill the large, cold office.

Angus didn’t laugh.

“Listen kid, I may not be the world’s greatest detective-” he smiled when Angus snorted, unable to help himself. “But I can tell when something’s wrong.”

Angus tightened his body, back in the chair he’d been sitting in when Taako had shown up.

“The old flower flu, huh?” Taako always smiled at the joke, although no one else had ever found it funny- not that he could remember, at least. “Who ya got it for?”

Angus went white, and any humour he’d managed to conjure drained out of the air.

“Sir, I’d rather not-”

Taako waved him off. “Don’t sweat it, kid, I’m no snitch.” Angus looked relieved, and Taako took a deep breath, forcing the words out. “They can’t possibly love you as much as I do, anyway.” 

Before he knew it, there was a gasp and he was whipping around just in time to watch Angus collapse, quickly scooping him up in his arms and rubbing his back as he coughed up the roots of the lily plant that had been slowly climbing its way up his throat.

“Of course I love you,” he breathed, his lips pressed against Ango’s curls. He wanted to answer all the questions Angus had, even if he was too busy coughing to ask them. “Of course I do. How could I not? You’re smart, and funny-” Taako kissed his cheek. “And cute as a button.” He laughed, partially from relief and partially at a particularly gross choking noise Angus made. “I really thought you knew,” he grinned. “Some detective you are.”

Once Ango was done, and he’d taken a few deep breaths against Taako’s shoulder, the kid had the nerve to draw back and give Taako a look, all accusatory, like ‘how did you know?” Well, that certainly wasn’t gonna fly after basically saving his life, so Taako flicked him on the nose. 

“Next time something like this happens, you tell me.” Angus nodded, and then they went back to cuddling for a length of time neither would disclose.

Outside, Lucretia wiped the tears from her eyes, lifting her ear away from the crack in the door. There’d been no time to create a more sophisticated method- and she’d wanted to hear every word.


	7. Chapter 7

Taako sat on his bed, twirling a velvety red rose between his fingertips. He’d added a new type of flower to his collections, and he was pissed off- it hurt bad enough before fucking thorns were in the mix.

He knew who it was for, of course. He bet everyone did. The handsome reaper he’d gone on a date with was the talk of the moon base.

“That’s pretty.”

He snorted, too preoccupied to look at Magnus.

“You could say I made it, like.”

Magnus just nodded, used to the insanity that came with befriending a wizard, completely separate but in addition to the insanity that came with befriending Taako. “It’s beautiful.”

“Meh,” Taako shrugged, throwing it aside with maybe a little more force than necessary. “Not my style.”

“What is your style?”

“Violets.” Taako very nearly clapped his hand over his mouth. He’d spoken without thinking, and worse- ugh- he’d spoken sincerely. He was about to make a joke, or set his own hair on fire, anything to distract Magnus-

But then Magnus was coughing.

“Fuck,” he gasped. Taako’s eyes widened as violet petals came fluttering down onto his bedspread. Magnus tried to turn around, but it was too late. “Fuck. Don’t look!”

Taako gave a shaky little sigh, not sure if he wanted to laugh or scream, and held Magnus tight until he was done coughing.

“You didn’t have to make those just for me,” Taako breathed, the words too soft to be a joke. “Store-bought would have been fine.”

“Fuck,” Magnus repeated. “I’m sor-”

Taako cut him off with a kiss, and when he pulled away he didn’t know which one of them had been crying. “Tell me,” he begged.

Magnus grinned, pressing their foreheads together. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Taako sobbed. Then they were both coughing, holding hands and smiling in between spitting out petals and roots. It was absolutely disgusting, and it was the best moment of Taako’s life. When it was finished, two dying plants lay on the floor, along with a few flowers he’d never seen before.

Taako gingerly picked up one of the tiny wildflowers, bright orange and gold and shaped like the sun. It suddenly hit him- they must only grow around Raven’s Roost. “For Jules?”

“Yeah.” Magnus could barely speak, watching Taako like he was the whole world. “When someone dies, the flowers come back.”

Suddenly Taako felt so frightened his vision blurred for a second. “These ones aren’t gonna kill you, are they?”

“No,” Magnus pulled him into a hug, and Taako went willingly, pressing his face into his boyfriend’s warm neck. “No, there’s only a few of them. They don’t kill you the second time. Just a reminder.”

Eventually they drew back slightly, and Taako looked at the flower in his hand again, slightly crumpled now. “Beautiful.” Taako said it quietly, genuinely, and he set it gently aside. Suddenly he felt overcome with joy, and to avoid letting Magnus see him cry he tackled him. “Beautiful.”

Then Magnus picked him up and swung him around, and they were laughing, and it didn’t hurt as much as it did before.


	8. Chapter 8

Who could possibly be left? Taako stormed down the hall, fuming so much that a little bit of actual steam was conjuring itself up around his head. He had not one, but two boyfriends, and a kid who was basically his. It seemed like he had gotten more than his fair share of love. 

Yet every time he so much as jogged to the library, he was hacking up chrysanthemums until he could hardly breathe. They were the first ones to come up- it seemed like he’d been pulling them out of his teeth ever since he could remember. Was he going to have to have three boyfriends before he could breathe again? Adopt a few brothers and sisters for Angus? Get a fucking dog?

He whipped his wand out on instinct as he crashed into someone, only to lower it when he saw that it was Angus.

“Hi, honey.”

“The Director’s looking for you.”

As he looked at Angus’ little face, too serious for such a young kid, he tried not to think about Merle’s quiet voice telling him that the chrysanthemum plant would kill him before two weeks were up, and that this might be the last mission he ever went on. That he might never meet them, the person he’d been waiting for since birth. That he’d never see Angus again, or Magnus, or Kravitz, or Merle or, heck, even Lucretia- oh god, he’d never get to make Leon cry again.

Angus pulled him out of his spiral. “Sir, are you okay?”

“I love you,” he blurted out.

Angus’ face relaxed, grinning and surprised, and Taako sighed, smiling too. That was better.

“I love you too, sir.”

Distracted, he walked to Lucretia’s office too quickly and had to stand outside her door for a minute, coughing up petals and blood.


	9. Chapter 9

Taako threw back the baby voidfish’s ichor, and felt it go down a little rough. Coughing lightly into his hand, he pulled away holding a peony. He furrowed his brow. Peonies meant anger, he knew his flower meanings by now, but who-

Then Lucretia burst in, and the memories sent him to the floor, and when he came to in a pile of more flowers than he’d ever seen he finally knew who they were all for.

“Lup.” It was the first thing out of his mouth as he shot up, barely enough breath left to say it. “Lup, oh god.” She was gone. She was gone and he was going to die.

When Lup burst out of the umbrastaff, it was with an explosion of red roses and pink carnations. They covered the ground as they burned, millions of them, coming up to Taako’s waist and nearly drowning poor Angus. 

“I thought elves didn’t get that,” he mocked, and then she was hugging Taako and Barry, spitting out a final petal and never coughing up a flower again. Later, she would rejoice in the fact that her reaper form kept her from coughing at all. She was well sick of it.

And then-

“I love you, Taako.”

He barely heard the rest of Kravitz’s sentence over his own labored breathing. Once the very last of his plants lay shriveled on the floor, red roses lying next to the chrysanthemums he’d just gotten rid of, he took the first clean breath he’d felt since- god, since practically before they’d left home. It felt amazing, but not quite as amazing as the freezing cold kiss that followed it.

They made quick work of burning the few flowers that had escaped Lup’s wrath once Merle started getting a little too handsy.


	10. Chapter 10

Taako threw open the door, Lucretia scrambling upright at the intrusion. She tried to cover them up, wiping her desk clean and stacking various books over the remnants of her mess, but Taako had already seen.

Purple hyacinths.

Tons of them. Even on his worst days, he’d never seen so many flowers in one place. Forgetting his anger for a moment, he felt himself shift straight to panic. She couldn’t have much time. Probably less than a week. Then the anger was back, and a strange sense of smugness- she’d always been far too good at keeping secrets, and now it was finally going to kill her.

She explained, pausing a lot to drink water, that she’d had to dispose of buckets of flowers every day before they all remembered. When they’d returned, all miraculously alive, she’d never expected them all to forgive her. 

“But they did,” she smiled. “They did, somehow.” She didn’t tell him how she’d started coughing up seeds, a marker of the late stages, how she knew she only had a few days left when the roots wrapped around her heart and started climbing into her mouth. She didn’t have to.

Taako grunted noncommittally. “Who’re those for, then?”

She didn’t answer, suddenly becoming very focused on scooping up her flowers.

Against his will, a sudden tear pricked Taako’s eye almost painfully. He gritted his teeth and, with a wave of his wand, the flowers were gone. Lucretia straightened up in surprise, and then Taako was just staring at her.

“Thank you-” she tried, but Taako held up a hand.

“Shush,” he ordered. “Shut up.” So she did.

Eventually, and after a lot of facial expressions from Taako as he had a little argument in his mind, he came around the desk to face her. Even then, it took a minute for him to actually force himself to speak. “I know what this feels like,” he started. He looked almost furious for a minute, then forced himself to take a breath. 

Then his eyes were on her, and she had forgotten how beautiful they were, all green and gold and sorrow. “I know how it feels to love someone who just won’t love you back. It hurts.” He was crying a little, and maybe so was she- everything was getting blurry, getting dark. Maybe she didn’t have as many days left as she thought she did.

“I can’t ask it of you,” she finally said. “I won’t.” She tried to cross her arms, to back away, to do anything to get a little space between them, but he held her there with the lightest touch.

“I can’t forgive you yet, Lucy,” he pleaded. “But I do love you.” 

Then he hugged her so quickly she thought maybe it hadn’t happened at all, and left her to cough up the last of it.


	11. Chapter 11

“We never would have loved anyone but each other if there wasn’t some kind of physical incentive.” Lup’s eyes sparkled as she finally explained why they seemed to be the only two elves susceptible to Hanahaki- after all, they were usually above such gross human things. She was back in her corporeal form, hotter and more touch-starved than ever- which was why they were all currently in a huge ‘cuddle puddle,’ as she put it. 

Everyone laughed, even Lucretia, who months after they’d defeated the hunger was still a little on edge around her old friends, and even Kravitz, who knew firsthand from his queen exactly why they’d been cursed with the ‘flower flu.’ He laughed partly because Lup didn’t know how close she’d gotten to the truth, but mostly because Lup was just funny.

“That’s true,” Taako smiled. “Especially not you, four-eyes.” Angus laughed and Taako gave him a little kiss on the cheek. If anyone made fun of him for it, he figured, what were they all now, level forty? He could just kill them. Or he could have Magnus do it. 

He looked over at his boyfriend, taking a second to appreciate how he managed to make that giant sword look regular-sized. Yeah, that’d be way easier. And more fun. Kravitz probably wouldn’t bend the rules like that, and anyway he’d probably kill them all nice. Maybe he could watch Lup burn them to a crisp.

“Or maybe,” she continued, her mouth twitching up into a smile. “It only got me by genetic association, and it’s your divine punishment for wearing that dumb, stupid hat.”

He laughed harder than anyone, finding it impossible for a second to breathe, and a little jolt of fear ran through him, still not used to not being sick.

Then it passed, and he could breathe easy.


End file.
